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Employees, employers and the institutions of work: the global competition for terrain in the ageing workforce agenda

Bradley Jorgensen (Manager, Global Analytics Services at Infohrm Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia.)
Philip Taylor (Professor of Employment Policy in the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.)

Foresight

ISSN: 1463-6689

Article publication date: 22 February 2008

2604

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess risks and prospects for older workers and to provide a number of recommendations designed to marshal the interests of employees, business and government.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines the terrain of competing interests and dynamic complexities of workforce ageing, by elaborating on the topic of economic globalisation, the policy approaches adopted by government, the actions taken by industry and the working and life preferences of older workers.

Findings

In the absence of a deep understanding of the current relationship between demographic ageing, the labour market and economic globalisation, the policy aspirations of government face the prospect of limited success. The currently popular premise, that ageing populations go hand‐in‐hand with ageing workforces, appears to be contradicted by much of the available evidence, which points to rather more complex scenarios, in which outcomes are uncertain, but clearly where late career workers may not necessarily fare well.

Originality/value

The paper brings analysis to the area of ageing populations and the labour market in the context of globalization – a complex and important topic that is usually dealt with far too simply.

Keywords

Citation

Jorgensen, B. and Taylor, P. (2008), "Employees, employers and the institutions of work: the global competition for terrain in the ageing workforce agenda", Foresight, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 22-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680810856008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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